Generate your own wind energy.

If you have a 9-miles-an-hour wind, half-an-acre of land and a few thousand dollars in the bank, you could sit back and generate your own energy like the gentleman in this photo.

As energy costs rise, more consumers are investing in home-operated wind turbines, aiming to take control of their household utilities and to cut their energy bills sharply.

Ron Stimmel, spokesman for the American Wind Energy Association; he says the market is growing 30 to 40 percent a year.

Prices for these propellor-like windmills are dropping. But they still don't come cheap. The latest turbines convert wind into household energy by using wind speeds as low as 9 miles an hour, and they are smaller, quieter than older models. Most systems require at least a half-acre, and costs can range from $12,000 to $50,000.

Click here to read an article in the New York Times about these energy savers.

- David Adams